The first thing DhaniHarrison does before we start our interview is waft about a stick of burning wood – a spirit-setting act of a piece with his father George Harrison’s interest in eastern mysticism.

“This is palo santo; it’s like an incense. It’s lovely, but it goes away – it’s not like sage. It translates as holy stick or holy wood – which is why Hollywood has that name. The Native Americans would burn it to clear energy. So when you’re walking into something new, as we walked into this room, poof, it’s gone. And now,” he beams, all boyish, puckish enthusiasm, “we can start something new.

“It’s a smoky palate cleanser for the soul,” he concludes with a delighted flourish. “That’s what we all need these days. Palo santo and a pint!” The songwriter and soundtrack composer is the only son of the late Beatle. Like his father, he is coming belatedly to his first solo album. Harrison Sr killed time with The Beatles and soundtrack work before releasing 1970’s landmark All Things Must Pass. Harrison Jr, 39, formed the bands Thenewno2 and “folk supergroup” Fistful of Mercy and scored films and TV shows before focusing on the creation of In///Parallel.

“I grew up in that studio. As a kid, I remember sneaking in, seeing how far I could get in before anyone saw me. You’d smell cigarette smoke,” he says in a hushed, conspiratorial voice, “and I’d be thinking: ‘I’m not supposed to be here ’ You might catch Roy Orbison singing ‘Not Alone Anymore’ or Carl Perkins or Duane Eddy doing an instrumental. It was mind-bending.”

Harrison relocated to America two decades ago, initially to study industrial design at Brown University in Rhode Island. “The voltage is half the juice out there!” he shouts with good-natured agitation, “so you can’t just have a quick cuppa, cos it takes ages for the kettle to boil.”

He is now based in Los Angeles. “Me and all my English mates, we take it in turns to bring back Typhoo care packages.”

When he landed back in the old country two days ago, Harrison went straight to his childhood home in Henley-on-Thames and “kissed the ground. This beautiful forest, river lands, sunny day, I saw my old dog, I went into the little local pub, everyone’s like: ‘All right, Dhani?'” he rattles on. “Nothing’s changed. It’s like Hobbiton. It’s completely grounding.”

We’ve met in a townhouse in Kensington. It turns out that this is the HQ of Apple, keepers of The Beatles’ flame. There’s an epic Damien Hirst on the wall, 1960s ads for Apple in the loo, and vintage prints of George Harrison and John Lennon in their pre-Fab Four, leather jacket-wearing phase. Even in his grown-up skater clobber – snapbrim baseball cap, ripped black jeans, white shirt – Dhani is the spit of his guitar-slinging dad.

George Harrison and Dhani in 1985 at Brands Hatch (ROLF HAMILTON/AFP/Getty Images)

In///Parallel betrays a heady brew of influences and ideas. “London Water” was inspired by a story he read in a British newspaper about the unsavoury elements routinely found in the capital’s drinking water. “I spent a lot of time rowing on the Thames as a kid because I grew up in Henley. I thought how beautiful that was, and how the river is washing away all this filth. There are also lyrical references to Isis, which obviously now makes everyone think about Islamic State. But Isis was an Egyptian goddess, and it’s the name of the [upper] Thames near Oxford.”

The harsh industrialism of “Ulfur Resurrection” – like Depeche Mode on a comedown – is a tribute to his late “wolf dog”, Woody. A husky, he helped Harrison to get through a bad patch. “I was able to love myself more and be healthier and start meditating more. He was resurrecting me. But by the time the record was done, Woody got cancer and passed away.”

Dhani Harrison performs at the 2017 Panorama Music Festival, New York, July 2017 (ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images)

He politely ducks the question of whether that bad patch was related to his split last year from his wife, instead moving off on a typically excited tangent about the importance of wolves to Game of Thrones (he loves the books). “Ulfur is the Icelandic word for wolf, which is where the name Oliver comes from.”

That’s another great bit of trivia, I tell him. “Yeah. I get called Ginger Spice a lot, just because I come out with random information,” he beams – a nickname which seems pretty random in itself.

Harrison’s energy and imagination are clearly doing him creative and emotional good. As well as promoting his solo album across the US and Europe, he is currently working on a TV series commission and the music for a documentary on the street artist Shepard Fairey. He’d love to do a sci-fi soundtrack, too, and is already thinking of a second solo album.

Hugely affable and engaging, he wears his father’s legacy lightly. Harrison seems to have long made peace with the fact that he hasn’t fallen far from the tree. As he puts it: “The first time I played on stage was with my dad at Tokyo Dome baseball arena in front of 50,000 people when I was 12. My joke to my mates was always that I’m working my way back down to playing in a pub in front of four people. Do your music career in reverse. Living the nightmare,” he says, grinning.

His relaxation is a result, perhaps, of recently finishing the project of a lifetime.

Another of his hats is custodian of his father’s archive – he won a Grammy for his work on 2002’s Brainwashed, George’s final, posthumously released album.

“My first time on stage was with my dad in front of 50,000 people when I was 12. I joke that I’m working my way back down to playing in a pub”

“I’ve just spent 17 years remastering everything for vinyl and CD and getting it all in one box set,” he explains. “So I’m taking a little break. That’s taken up a lot of my bandwidth for most of the past 20 years. I even played on Travelling Wilburys stuff and worked on the remaster of All Things Must Pass – an album that was made before I was born.

“So I told my mum and everyone that once this box set is done, I have to carve out a big portion of time for myself. Because otherwise I’m going to start resenting it – and if you’re the person in charge of George Harrison’s archive and you resent it, then you’re a terrible person.”

His mother, Olivia Harrison, is another active custodian of George Harrison’s Beatles and solo work. What does she make of their son’s first solo album? “I think it scared her when she first heard it. She said [concerned voice]: ‘Is this how you feel?’ ‘Yeah, mum, this is what’s going on inside my head.’ ‘Oh, I’m so sorry ’ “Hey, it’s cathartic!” chirps the Quiet Beatle’s now-cheery son. “Keeps me off the streets! Keeps me busy.”

‘In///Parallel’ is out now on BMG

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